|
Summary:
When Emma Hollis and Barry Baldwin are dispatched to investigate a mass
grave found beneath a highway construction site they come face to face
with Peter Watts and a Millennium Group team. Frank Black, at Quantico
investigating the case through a reclusive and paranoid man who seems
to have witnessed the killings, tries his best to determine what
interest the Millennium Group has in the deaths. Both Frank and Emma
soon discover the Group may have sinister intent and that anyone who
uncovers the truth may be in grave danger.
Season Three on DVD
Full Transcript Available
Synopsis:
In Arlington, Virginia, a man named Ed sits on a park bench,
quietly recording thoughts in a leather spine journal. As Ed
looks up, he experiences visions of a human skull and
skeletal hand. Meanwhile, in Fingus, Maine, construction
site workers uncover a skeleton hand and a human skull
buried beneath the dirt.
Watts arrives at the site, where
he meets with Sheriff Walden. Walden suspects that the unidentified
remains came from another area, as everyone living in his small county
are accounted for. Shortly thereafter, Agents Baldwin and Hollis
arrive at the scene. Baldwin is surprised to see Watts at the site.
Watts explains that he and his team happened to be working another
case nearby when he received a call regarding the discovery.
Back at Quantico, McClaren tells
Frank that, fifteen years earlier, he received a strange letter after
a woman named Cynthia Paggett disappeared. The note described in great
detail how Paggett was murdered. But police never found a body. Over
the course of the year, McClaren received five more letters, each
describing the murder of another victim who vanished into thin air.
The last two words of the author's latest note read: "Fingus, Maine."
Emma discovers a bullet hole in
one of the skulls pulled from the construction site. She also
discovers a ceramic plug covering another hole in the skull. Emma
realizes that the victim had undergone surgery. She also realizes that
such a procedure would be very uncommon, and hopes to identify the
victim through the use of medical records.
In the first note McClaren
received, the author pinpointed the exact location of Cynthia
Paggett's murder. Frank travels to that location, but the old address
turns out to be a parking lot. Frank notices someone watching him from
an apartment window nearby. When Frank enters the structure, Ed
attempts to make a getaway. Frank orders the man to stop. Just as
suddenly, Ed freezes, a crazy expression on his face. Later, Frank
discovers a hidden door inside Ed's apartment. The door leads to a
library containing leather spine journals, each one bearing the name
of a different victim.
Using computer technology,
measurements taken from the skull are used to reconstruct the victim's
face. The image matches Paggett's photograph. McClaren phones the site
with word that a suspect has been taken into custody. He tells the
agents that there are six victims in all. The agents believe that the
case is reaching a conclusion.
Meanwhile, Frank finishes
researching Ed's journals-thirty-six in all. The spine of the final
volume reads: "Cheryl Andrews, M.D." Frank tells Ed that he once
worked with Andrews, who disappeared the previous year. Ed, however,
is very vague about what happened to her. McClaren interrupts the
conversation when he drops by the apartment. Frank tells him that Ed
witnessed the first murder from his apartment window. He then reveals
that there are many bodies yet to be found each victim a successful
professional.
Frank telephones Emma Hollis. He
tells her that Peter Watts is at the dig to find Cheryl Andrews'
remains and keep their discovery a secret. He accuses the Millennium
Group of killing Andrews. Armed with the new information, Emma
unearths more bones.
Ed tells Frank that the lives of
all of the victims were detailed in newspaper accounts. In the case of
Cheryl Andrews, she had made a trip to Germany to report on a bizarre
discovery she had made while performing an autopsy. But Andrews was
arrested by customs officials. Records indicate she was deported, but
Ed believes she was murdered. Emma phones Frank with information. She
tells him that a "Homer B. Pettey" authorized Andrews' release from a
German prison. Later, Watts tells Emma that Andrews died in her home
town of Omaha ten months earlier. Watts hands Emma a newspaper
clipping of Andrews' obituary. Emma travels to the town library in
Fingus, Maine. She finds an identical obituary on microfilm. She then
notices a series of freestanding educational panels, each with a
different heading. One of the panels lists the names of property
owners affected by a new freeway. One of those names is "Homer B.
Pettey."
Frank tells McClaren that Ed
linked together forty-three disappearances simply by reading lots and
lots of newspapers and magazines. As a result of the murder he
witnessed, Ed read obsessively and built connections about everyone he
came across. Over the course of fifteen years, he developed a special
gift. But if Ed ever came forward, Frank believes the Millennium Group
would have him killed. Frank urges McClaren to release Ed, believing
he will be safer on his own. Later, Frank drives Ed back to his
apartment. When Frank and Ed arrive at the apartment building, Frank
notices a suspicious white van parked out front. When Frank enters the
apartment, Mabius attacks him. A battle ensues, and Mabius falls out a
window, crashing onto the van below. The van roars to life, and Ed
makes a getaway.
Emma travels to the home of Homer B.
Pettey. Inside, she discovers frightening-looking tools. She realizes
the dwelling was used for killing the victims. Watts confronts Emma,
assuring her that she has arrived at the wrong conclusion. Shortly
thereafter, as Watts and Emma observe, a bulldozer ploughs through the
house. Watts maintains that forty-three "threats" to the United
State-forces that could have easily torn the country apart-are gone.
Emma glares at Watts and walks away.
|
Photographs:
- Frank contemplates the case at hand
- Frank frantically chases Ed on foot
- Emma considers the available evidence
- Peter provides Emma with explanations
- Frank searches Ed's apartment building
- Frank angrily demands answers from Ed
Print Advertisement
Abyss Rating:
(4/5)
Media Review:
"'Skull
and Bones' casts a different light on the villainous betrayal of
Millennium Group member Cheryl Andrews (CCH Pounder), effectively
leveling the good guy/bad guy dichotomies that the second season
reveled in with comic-bookish abandon." —Keith
Uhlich, Slant Magazine
"The mythos element is still present, but
season three is a definite return to the look and feel of season one,
where most of the episodes are individual dark crime stories. The
scripts in season three are consistently sharp (especially Ken
Horton's and Chip Johannessen's), and the interesting, new dynamics
introduced could have easily carried the show onward for many more
seasons." —Rob Bracco, Amazon.com
Trivia:
This episode
features the final appearance of acclaimed actress CCH
Pounder as Cheryl Andrews, the Millennium Group pathologist seen in a
number of Millennium episodes. The character appears in flashback sequences
throughout "Skull and Bones," scenes that serve as both
prequel and follow-up to the events seen in the second season episode
"The Hand of St. Sebastian."
In "Skull and Bones," Bob Wilde continues
in his role as the mysterious Mabius. The silent Millennium Group
assassin would make appearances throughout the third season, proving
to be an intriguing element of the show's mythology. The actor was
first seen on Millennium as cult leader Ricardo Clement in the
first season episode "Gehenna," a role not entirely unrelated to the
sinister Mabius.
This episode earned
Director of Photography Robert McLachlan his second Millennium
American Society of Cinematographers Award nomination for Outstanding
Achievement in Cinematography in a Regular Series.
McLachlan, who worked on Millennium
throughout its three year run, commented that the show's distinctive
visual style was prompted by the show's creator. Upon starting work on
the third season, McLachlan noted he was eager to work under the
supervision of Chris Carter once more, despite a season with Glen
Morgan and James Wong. “I really liked working with those guys but
it’s not their show, and I think it’s a good thing that Carter’s going
to be heavily involved this year. He’s the big reason the show looks
the way it does and he’s the reason The X-Files looked the way
it did. He had the clout to say, ‘I want it this dark. I don’t care if
the affiliates are complaining that the TV sets of their viewers in
Ohio aren’t up to the signal we’re sending.’ He wanted it dark, and
most of all he wanted something that was as close to feature film
caliber as he could possibly get, and he wouldn’t accept anything
else.”
Robert McLachlan explains that
Millennium was typically filmed in the style of a black and white
film. This technique allowed the series to convey unique visuals and
offered the cinematographer a refreshing change of pace. “The initial
concept was to pull a lot of the color out of the film in post, so
that it became somewhat monochromatic but not quite black and white.
If you lit like you would for normal color cinematography, the
pictures went really muddy [in post] because you had no separation.
When you’re lighting for black and white
— the classic black and white
lighting —
you’ve got back light, you’ve got hard edges, you’ve got hard kickers.
That’s what I think gives the show its distinctive look. It’s harder
to do, but after years of lighting high key color stuff, with lots of
big, soft lights and soft sources, I found it was a lot more fun to
get back to basically the way those guys worked in the ‘40s and ‘50s
with the slower stocks, with smaller lights but harder sources.”
Death Toll:
43
Title:
Skull and bones symbols
have been used throughout history to represent mortality and death and
were often used to designate graves and burials. The Order of Skull
and Bones is also the name of a Yale University secret society founded
in 1833, a group commonly connected with conspiracy theories
concerning American politics.
Soundtrack:
"Love Hurts" by Nazareth
Awards:
American Society of Cinematographers
Award - Robert McLachlan, Outstanding
Achievement in Cinematography (Nominee)
Starring:
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Terry O'Quinn as Peter Watts
Klea Scott as Emma Hollis
Peter Outerbridge as Barry Baldwin
Stephen E. Miller as Andy McClaren
Guest Starring:
CCH Pounder as Cheryl Andrews
Arye Gross as Ed
Bob Wilde as Mabius
Mitchell Kosterman as Sheriff Walden
Jason Diablo as the D.O.T. Foreman
Barbara Dyke as the Librarian
Rob Freeman as the Customs Officer
Keir MacPherson as the Technician
Rob Morton as the D.O.T. Driver
Production
Credits:
Production #6C06
Music by Mark Snow
Production Designer Mark Freeborn
Director of Photography Robert McLachlan
Associate Producer Jon-Michael Preece
Co-Producer Robert Moresco
Co-Producer Paul Rabwin
Producer Thomas J. Wright
Co-Executive Producer Ken Horton
Co-Executive Producer John Peter Kousakis
Executive Producer Chip Johannessen
Executive Producer Michael Duggan
Executive Producer Chris Carter
|
